Top Most Isolated Places in the World

Throughout the course of history, humans have constantly migrated across the great expanses of the earth to establish diverse communities. From mere wandering packs, some have grown into large cities harboring millions of individuals while others   have chosen    to remain in tiny groups totally cut off from the rest of the world.  Some of these communities have withstood the test of time in their near isolation in their near isolation state that in extreme cases almost all of their residents have never seen an inch of land outside the closed hamlet where they call home.

Tristan da cunha  

Discovered by Tristanda Cunha in 1506 who named the place after himself, Tristan da Cunha is widely regarded as the most remotely populated island in the world. It proudly boasts of zero restaurants, zero hotels, zero credit cards and to top it all it has no safe beach. Now who in his/her right senses would venture to inhabit in such a place?

The Tristan da Cunha made up of both the archipelago   and the main island is a group of islands in the middle of    the Atlantic    Ocean lies   2800 kilometers from South Africa   and 3000 kilometers from South America. The nearest land mass to Tristan is Saint Elena which itself is 2400 kilometers from the island. The Island is completely surrounded by unsafe waters.

 Even though the first official mapping of the island was made by the French Frigate La Gorda  Bursch in 1767,    the first true inhabitant of Tristan da Cunha arrived in 1810 when  American    explorer   Jonathan Lambert landed on the island   and and immediately proclaimed himself as its grand ruler (ruler over nobody per se!).  

Presently, Tristan da Cunha is thriving   with a population of about 266 individuals. Unlike most isolated communities, the inhabitants have access   to some major amenities including a hospital that even offers dental services and operating theaters as well as a    grocery store. However, orders must be made weeks or in some cases, months in advance    for grocery items as everything must be shipped to the island. Though modernity   has taken over, the remoteness of the island still makes habitation extremely difficult as electricity is not available anywhere on the island rather   diesel generators are centrally located between cottages. No wonder why it is called the introvert’s paradise.

 

It is noteworthy though to add that the Tristan da Cunha sits on a very active volcano that erupted as recently as in the 1960s. So, it may not be such a paradise after all.

Palmerston Island

Discovered by shipwrecked Captain Cook in 1774, this island sits at approximately 3,250 kilometers northeast of New Zealand. Palmerston   Island is occupied by just 62   people who strangely, are all from the same bloodline and holds the record as one of the most isolated community on the face of the planet.

The inhabitants of the island can be traced back to just one man named   William Marsters who took up permanent residency there with his Polynesian wife and her two cousins   after being granted possession of the island   by the Great Queen Victoria in 1863. William immediately took his wife's cousins as his second and third and together, they had 23 children before his death in 1899.  Presently,   all but three of    the people on the island   are direct descendants of Marsters.

Life on the island is one of total isolation and   obscurity. There are no    banks, schools, hotels or markets. Money is only used when trading off the island or when ships come with supplies from   the outside world.   The remoteness of this island is so precarious that there is no true water system or even decent toilets. Rainwater is collected for drinking    and there are only two public toilets available for general use. Electricity is only available for    six hours    every day   and just one telephone   station serves the whole island.  

Vacation on the Island is not easy either because apart from the unavailability of any hotel, Palmerston is about   five hundred  kilometers  miles    from its closest neighbor- the capital  island of    Rarotonga and as such, it will take two days   sailing   on Pacific Seas boats to reach this castle of isolation.

 

Supai village, Arizona

 

The Grand Canyon is widely regarded as one   of the most widely revered tourist’s spot in the world  because of  its  various jaw-breaking views; but more unbelievable is the fact that most people do not know that right at the side-branch of this popular destination lies a very secluded village called Supai. 

 Supai is located in a side-branch    of the Grand Canyon   known as Havasu Canyon. The community consists of   members of the Havasupai tribe who have inhabited the place for the past eight centuries! In total isolation!!  

 The Havasupai people (mostly referred to as the people of the blue-green waters) thrive in this arid and harsh landscape by practicing irrigation farming in the summer as well as group-hunting wild animals during the winter season.  The blue waterfall (one of the great highlight of the Grand Canyon) does not provide the Supai villagers with just their namesake but also their water source for survival. Funny enough, the land in which the Havasupai live is a well-guarded world heritage reservation.

Civilization in Supai village is so little that the residents are   the only   people in the United States    who still receive their mails    and parcels by mule-Yes, by an animal. In fact, any    mail leaving there   also bears a postmark that is unique to Supai.

There are not tarred roads nor vehicular movement, so to reach this village, tourists would have to venture by foot, mule or helicopter and that its self would mean travelling for about 57 kilometers from the hub of the Grand Canyon.

Utqiaġvik, Alaska  

Formerly known as Barrow in Alaska, lying well above the Arctic is this very remote and cold town called Utqiaġvik. It is the northernmost city in America and the   ninth most northern city in the world.

Although   the weather is    extreme,   archaeological   evidence indicates    that  people have been thriving in this region from as early as 500 AD.  Even though the native Inupiat tribe call the place Utqiagvik (the place where owls are hunted), after exploration     by   Frederick Beachy, the region was named after Sir John Barrow - A prominent British promoter of Arctic explorations.

   The city is built upon    a layer of permafrost   that   goes down to 420  meters, 1,290 feet deep in   some places.  The warm season in Utqiaġvik    lasts a mere   three months with average penultimate temperatures measuring   around 2 degrees Celsius. Next is the beast-The Great Cold Season which can last for up to 6 months with throbbing peak temperatures ranging around minus sixteen degrees Celsius.   

As if the murderous cold is not sufficient, the rather shy habitants of this city also have to deal with annual polar nights normally starting in November.  During this time, the Sun sets in Utqiaġvik and does not rise again for roughly days. This notwithstanding, the area boasts of a population of roughly 4,433 with Piatt Eskimos consisting of over 65% of this population.

 As can be predicted, huge petroleum deposits which can be found in this region came with its own benefits as their homes are heated by natural gas from local oil fields and they also have modern water and sewer systems installed all aver the city. The city has seven churches, hotels, various standardized schools and good telecommunication network (including internet!!)

 

Irrespective of all this privileges, natives still take part in their seasonal whaling and seal hunting to “help them wade” the long hard winters and as you can guess, they never leave their community-even with the well exposed oil workers.

La Rinconada, Peru

 

 Right in the Peruvian Andes,  64  kilometers north off the shores of Lake Titicaca lies the filthy town of La Rinconada. It holds the record as the highest altitude `in which human habitation has ever been recorded.  La Rinconada sits at a mind blowing height of 5000 kilometers–right at the top of Mount Ananya.   

Sub-zero temperatures are generally experienced for most of the year (which is consistent with a region at this altitude). As if extreme temperatures are not strenuous enough,    the high attitude comes with characteristic altitude sickness including   headaches, nausea, shortness of breath and even death in extreme cases.  Beyond the isolated locale and freezing temperatures, this town has no basic modern amenities, almost no infrastructure, and    no single sanitation   system.    Environmental sanitation is non-existent (most people bury their    trash outside   of town   or in most cases, simply leave it where it falls).

 

The ridiculousness and shear unlivability of the  city does not stop there; as people living and working in    La Rinconada   also face demeaning conditions when coming in and out    of  the    city as the only roads leading    into La Rinconada   are as dirty as the city    itself and iced over for most days of the year. Don’t worry; I can guess the inkling question on your mind- why would an individual of sound mental health decide to make such a dumpsite and death zone a home? The answer is not very far-fetched, it’s Gold. Yes, lots of Gold.

 

In 2000, It was rumored that areas around La Rinconada was lying on tons and tons of gold. Within the next nine years, the population of the area more than quadrupled with illegal gold mines and shanties springing up irrationally and irresponsibly.

Presently, approximately 50,000 people call this squalid city home. Good riddance for such dirt and squalor.

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Don Mammoser/Alamy

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